Falling Down the Rabbit Hole or maybe just some stairs in Japan.

September 5th 2011 When I fell for Japan...lol

Yes, I know it is a very old and over due post. Anyways, I teach at three different Junior High Schools. I have a different rotation compared to most people over here. I go to my biggest school for 4 weeks, then one of my small schools for 2 weeks and then the other small school for 2 weeks. On Monday September 5th I had my first day at one of my smaller schools, Matsusato. I was really nervous because it was my first day and I had just gotten my scooter yesterday. I tried to leave in plenty of time for school because I didn't quite know where I was going. It was good that I left a little early because I did get a little lost, but I found it and I was right on time. I usually get pretty nervous anytime I do anything new. I was particularly nervous being in a foreign country at a new school where I didn't know anyone or how anything really worked. I know I had been at the other school for like a week, but every school is a little different.

I introduce myself to the teachers and meet one of my Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) for the first time, I had been introduced to the other one, when I was shown around to the different schools. We head up to the third floor to teach two ichi nensei (7th grade) classes in a row. On our way up she tells me that she cannot speak English very well and she cannot have English conversations, ok this makes me more nervous, since I do not know Japanese. I am nervous the whole time as I don't really know what to expect and I feel like I am not doing a whole lot in the class. After the second class is over I leave to go down to the staff room to meet my other JTE.

As I start down the stairs (this is where the fun begins) my left ankle gives out on me, I instinctively go to catch myself and my right ankle gives out on me. As I am falling down a flight of stairs toppling over myself I stick my left arm out and am able to grab the railing. I end up yanking my arm, but I do not really feel any pain from that because both of my ankles are in severe pain and I have no idea if I have broken them or sprained them or what. I do remember hearing some popping. There were a few students who were walking down the stairs at the same time as me and their faces were horrified. Anyways, the first thing I think to do is call Rhonda(she is an American woman who lives in Koshu with her Japanese husband, she has lived here for 25 years). I think to call her because I do not know Japanese and I am in severe pain.

As I am trying to call her the JTE I was teaching with comes to try and ask what's wrong I say I fell and I'm in lots of pain. They get the nervous and there is a lot of commotion of teachers and students and I am just thinking Oh, my goodness why why why I cannot believe this has happened. I am embarrassed and trying not to cry from pain. People keep speaking a lot of Japanese to me and I have no idea what they are saying. I get a hold of Rhonda and explain what happened I fell I think I may have broke one or both of my ankles and I am in lots of pain. She asks if the nurse is there and I hand the phone to her. In the process of all of this I am getting a lot of daijobu's (die jo boo) which I have no idea what that means at the time, but I learn very well later that day it basically means ok, are you ok, etc. Rhonda talks to them and says she is on her way.

I sit on the stairs and my other JTE comes up and says they are going to bring a stretcher up to come and get me, in my head I am thinking oh huh uh the last thing I need is them dropping me and me being more embarrassed over this. I grit my teeth and get up and use a lot of arm strength on the railing and slowly get myself down the stairs. They have a chair when I get down to the bottom. All the sudden my supervisor shows up as well as another ALT(assistant language teacher) Brittany. The Japanese go by their last names and it so happens that my supervisor and Rhonda have the same last name which has made things confusing and especially today. Anyways, I could not believe how fast they had showed up and I was super confused. I kept asking is Rhonda coming, or is she meeting us at the hospital?

Brittany told me that Rhonda knew what was going on. I get out to the car to go to the hospital and on the way Rhonda calls my phone but Brittany has it and answers it. Rhonda had went to the school and was asking where we were. Brittany said we were almost to the hospital and that she didn't need to come because "we" could handle it. This was not my thinking and thankfully Rhonda still came to the hospital. Apparently, my supervisor's son, who goes to Matsusato, called and told his mom I fell down the stairs. My supervisor was picking Brittany up to take her to see one of the other ALT's lessons, so it was happen chance they were together and close by. When Rhonda got there and talked with my supervisor, they then took Brittany to the other school to watch the lesson.

I had to wait for a doctor and I was glad Rhonda was there to translate. I got X-Rays and nothing was broken but I couldn't really walk and I had one ankle with a big metal and foam support thing and the other was wrapped good. It was a big mess and he said I couldn't go to school for at least a week. Rhonda was nice and told me to come live with her for awhile because she had TV, Internet, and then she could take care of me, because I wouldn't be able to really make myself anything because I couldn't walk.

There are definitely other minor things to go along with this, but this is the main bulk, feel free to ask questions if you want to know more.

You said what????

October 2011

Alright, so  some of you may already know this story, but for those of you that don't you may get a laugh. I have a 4 week, 2 week, 2 week, rotation at my schools, so I can go up to 6 weeks or more without seeing some of my students. This can make it difficult to learn their names and really bond with them. However, I am back at Enchu my biggest school. I was only here a week and a half before I started on my rotations around to the other schools.

 Anyways, at the beginning of class I always ask the same basic questions. How's the weather? What day is it? What's the date today? What time is it? and How are you? The standard answer for How are you? is I'm fine thank you and you? Well, we try to get them to say I'm happy, tired, sleepy, hungry, so so, etc. Well, I was in my 5th period class which is right after lunch so I couldn't get them to respond I'm hungry so I decided to teach them I'm full. I had heard the word in Japanese for "full" one time maybe, so I decide to try out the Japanese on my own. (In my head I was probably trying to score points with the Japanese teach of English). I say "I'm opai" (pronounced o-pie) and all of a sudden a few of these students just lose it and start laughing hysterically and my JTE is waving her hands like no no no and says "ipai, ipai" (pronounched ee-pie). Now, I say okay ipai. The same 3 students are still laughing pretty hard and I just think oh, haha I said the word kind of funny. Hey but I am trying right. I mean they seem really close, right?

Well, a little while later in class my JTE and I are walking around kind of checking papers and she is holding her stomach like she is full, so I say "Oh, ipai" and kind of smile. She gets this big smile on her face and almost laughs a little. I then kind of whisper to her "What's opai?" She kindly motions to her breasts. Oh, my goodness I said "I'm boobs" in class to a bunch of Junior High students, no wonder they were laughing so hard.

Well, needless to say I will never mix up the two again. I may forget all the Japanese that I have learned over here, but I will not forget those two words. I think the funnier thing about this is, anytime I am around and someone says ipai or I'm full and that JTE is around, she gets this big grin on her face and laughs a little. We have a good laugh and we have told some of the other teachers who also think it is rather funny. Well, leave it to me to be trying to say something innocent and it turn out totally wrong.

Hibbie Jibbies

Tuesday June 26th
Alright, so I went to Fujiyoshida, which is an hour and 15 minute train ride from where I live. It is right around the base of Mt Fuji. I headed there right after school because it was my friends birthday and she was having a small potluck like gathering at her place. Anyways, so I have a good time and then I have to head back on the train around 9:30pm. This is a very small train and it only has 3 cars, however, it is not very busy at this time of night either. My car had 3 other people in it, so I sat next to the end of a seat and put my back to the right of me. I decided to read on my iPad to pass the time and because I enjoy reading.

About 15 minutes into my ride I see motion out of the corner of my eye and there is a guy walking through the car, okay this is not abnormal, however as soon as he sees me look up he says "Oh, hello" and then proceeds to sit right next to my bag, extremely close.  I being who I am of course say hello back. The amazing thing about the whole conversation that I am about to write about is how good of English this guy actually had. It was surprising to me. I will try to note what was said and English and what I understood in Japanese separately, but it won't be perfect.

He then asks me where are you from? I say America. He responds "Really, I'm from Japan" He then says "My name is Maiko" He then asks "Where do you live?" I say Yamanashi (as that is the prefecture in which I live) He responds "Really" then proceeds to say "Oh, what is your name?" I am trying to think quickly as I do not really want to give him my real name so I say Stephanie.  "Really, oh your name is beautiful" He then proceeds to say "Nice to meet you" and reaches for my hand. I am nice so I say Nice to meet you, too and shake is hand.  "Do you have a boyfriend?" I quickly respond yes, especially in this situation. "Really, American boyfriend?" Yes. "Japanese boyfriend" I say No and am thinking I just told you American boyfriend. Then he says "2 boyfriends?" I say No and he proceeds to stomp his feet and throw a mini tantrum. He then asks "live boyfriend?" Yes, I do. (haha) He then proceeds to get closer and whispers in my ear "Have sex boyfriend?" I then say that is none of your business. He looks at me and then says "No comment" I say NO COMMENT he says "No comment" I say NO COMMENT.

At this point a girl gets up as the train is slowing down to get off the train but I notice she has her phone angled strangely as if she is trying to take a picture. Then I hear it take a picture (in Japan you cannot take the sound off as they have major problems with people taking photos without permission) I say Really, loudly and then say really you took a picture, which I know she knows the word picture. She acts like she doesn't hear and then the guy says something about a picture in Japanese and she looks and says No. The train stops and she gets off quickly. This really irks me for some reason, probably because I am feeling creeped out and nervous.

He then proceeds to say "Where do you live?" I say Yamanashi "Where Yamanashi" I then say Yamanashi-shi (I live in Enzan, yamanashi-shi is the next town over) Then he says "I be your boyfriend" No, "You be girlfriend?" and grabs my hand. I say No. He then proceeds to stomp his feet again. "How old are you?" I lie like I have been and say 23, I should have went older darn it. Then he says "boyfriend age?" I say 23 he says onaji which is same in Japanese. "I am 18, Where are you from?" America (we went over this) "Los Angelos" No "Where"  I say Chicago. "Really, oh American's are beautiful" continues to try and grab my hand. "I love you, you love me?" No he proceeds to stomp his feet and flail his hands in another mini tantrum and keeps trying to get closer. I am creeped out thoroughly and have tried to look and sound uninterested. All the sudden he stands up and says "Bye see you next time" and then walks to one of the other train cars. He doesn't get off. I try to go back to reading and am worried that he is going to follow me when I change trains at one of the stations. When I get off to change trains I am really creeped out, but I do not see him.

I have another 30ish minute ride to Enzan and I get off there are a few guys who get off and my adrenaline is still pumping and I am ready to punch someone, haha. On my walk home I go by a vending machine that has a huge spider on it, which would normally creep me out, but I remember thinking "Oh please, I have dealt with bigger issues tonight" haha I am silly. As I am getting closer to my place I think "and this is why I am leaving Japan." lol.

Well I am okay, everything is okay, the likely hood of me seeing that guy again is pretty slim, but I just thought I would share that story.

An Apology

I would like to apologize to my friends and family for not being better about blogging on here. I really do not enjoy writing. I would rather talk these stories out, I think I have a way about telling stories verbally that I just am unable to clearly write. I think one of the reasons that I was horrible is that I did not have internet for my first two months in Japan, so I never made it a habit.

Now, I shall try and post some stories, most likely out of order so I apologize for that as well. However, I will try to write the approximate dates that they happened if I can remember.

Emily Jo :D

My first full day in Japan

Side note, sorry these have taken so long, I still do not have internet on my apartment, just on my phone and it is too difficult to type this all out on the phone.

My first day I woke up at 6am walked to McDonalds had a coke, then walked around a little bit. I new that my supervisor and another ALT were going to pick me up around 10 so I needed to be ready. They picked me up and we headed to the City Office where I had to fill out paper work to get my Gaijin Card, Gaijin means non-Japanese or alien. There I received my Hanko, which is a Japanese name signature stamp, so essentially it is a stamper with my name written in katakana. It is pretty neat and they have neat little holders for them at different stores. While in the city office we went up to the 2nd floor where the Board of Education office is and I met my superiors. I had to learn how to say watashi no namae wa Emily desu. Which is basically my name is Emily. One of the leaders, my supervisor, the other ALT and I went out for lunch. We had houtou which is a thick noodle that is well known in Yamanashi (the ken in which I live). It was pretty good. They also had me taste a delicacy that is supposed to make you healthy here, so I tried it and it was super pasty in my mouth and I said I do not think I care if I am healthy...haha. They told me it was chicken guts....ewww. Not again.

We then headed to the bank where I had to sign up for a bank account and promise that when I leave Japan I will close my account. Yes, that is right I have foreign accounts now I feel so scandalous...haha. Anyways, more paperwork to fill out and then they were going to send me my bank card in the mail. The bank card works in the atm, but it is not a credit card, so that is different than the U.S. We were there quite awhile and I had to try and learn my new address and how to spell my full name in katakana. Thankfully the other ALT was there to translate, but still I was jet lagged and did not understand anything being said around me, I am pretty sure it just made me more tired.

We left there and went to D2 which is kind of like a wal-mart a little bit just because it has about everything. The other ALT needed to pick up the curtains she had previously ordered. We walked around a bit, I was overwhelmed not knowing how to read anything. When we walked out we got a snack, I dont rememeber what it was called but it was in the shape of a fish had a waffle like outside with red bean paste on the inside. Red bean is much sweeter and in my opinion tastier than the black bean paste that they put in deserts too. It was pretty yummy.

From their we headed across the street to Seria, which is a 100 yen store, basically like our dollar tree, where everything really is a dollar unlike stinking dollar general. They have a ton of disney stuff for super cheap, you would not get that in the states. I bought a key ring in the shape of Stich to put my apartment key on. I also picked up a honku holder.

We then headed over to Fred`s apartment. Fred has been in Japan for about 7 years and tries to help the new ALT`s get things taken care of. He already needed to help another ALT get their phone so they had decided to have me go and get mine as well to essentially save him time. He said he thinks that I hold the record on the ALT to get their phone the fastest from when they landed to getting their phone. Just under 24 hours. We headed to the cell phone store I picked out an HTC phone that has the Android OS system. It has been my life saver has it has some internet and most of all skype on it. I pay $7 a month for unlimited calls to the U.S. it is amazing!

After we got the phones we went and picked up another ALT so we have myself, Fred, Brittany, Matt, and Kelsey and we all go out to sushi, it was really cool because it was conveyor belt sushi where you can order it fresh or grab it right off the conveyor belt as it comes by. When you are done the waitress comes and counts your plates and takes into account the color of your plates to know your bill. I was severely jet lagged at this point and did not eat very much, but it was very good what I had.

The other ALT`s wanted to stop for desert so we went to Mister Donuts. I didn`t get anything as I was super tired and kind of nautious. I was trying to be a trooper for all of them though, because they had all been there for over a week and had recovered from their jet lag. We left and dropped Kelsey and Matt off then they dropped me off. I was so tired I just went in and passed out, however I did wake up at 5am the next morning. I woke up early for like the next week, but it was ok.

Thanks for reading sorry it has taken forever.

The flight and arrival

My last day in the states was on Wednesday August 10^th. I was able to enjoy breakfast at Perkins with some awesome friends and family and then most of us headed to the airport (one had a doctor’s appointment ;) haha). My mom, brother, Bethany, Grandma and Grandpa Hack, and the female Heintz’s visited with me at the airport until I said my good-bye’s/see you later’s and headed up the escalator to go through security. I missed them all the second I could no longer see them. The one thing that made it worse was knowing that I could not even call or text any of them while I was waiting for the flight. My flight from Des Moines to Minneapolis was quick and easy. Once I got off the plane and started looking for my next terminal I was reminded again of how I could not call/text anyone that I had made it safely to Minneapolis. I started heading to my next terminal but was stopped by a candy shop where I got a caramel apple, which was delicious. My two hour delay went by rather quickly and before I knew it I was boarding my one way ticket flight to Tokyo.

The flight was set to be around 12 hours long and I was planning on sleeping most of the way. The seats weren’t that bad, however the guy in front of me had his seat on permanent recline and liked to move around a lot, so it just seemed more crammed than I had expected, but it was not the end of the world. They actually fed us quite a bit on the flight too. I had pretzels and peanuts within thirty minutes of take off. Two hours later we had dinner, which was rather tasty. We had another sandwich about 4 hours later and then about an hour and half before landing we had breakfast.  Once we landed it seemed a little crazy at first but I just started heading to baggage claim hoping that someone would be around there to greet me. I had to fill out some sort of form showing the Japanese government how long I intended on staying and then had to give them my fingerprints (which creeped me out just a little bit). Then I headed to baggage claim put my bags on a cart, then had to fill out another sheet for customs. Once I was done with that I headed through the doors and looked and saw “Dear Ms. Emily (eighth note) Welcome! Koshu, Japan”. I was then greeted by Tezuka(my supervisor), Brittany(another ALT who came to help translate), James(the other sister city ALT), and Leader(the third in charge at the board of education.) They all very graciously began to take my bags as we headed to the car. When we walked outside I was engulfed by humidity. I did not know that it was possible, but I think it may have been more humid than Iowa.  As we walked to the car I asked Brittany why there was an eighth note on the sign, she proceeded to ask Tezuka and said it is just a symbol in Japan.

For those of you who do not know I have an eighth note tattooed on my wrist in memory of my step-father Doug Zook. He loved music and his business was in the music industry. He died on the eighth of September so my mother and I got eighth notes tattooed on us on his birthday a year after he had died. My brother also got one a few months later when he turned 18. The eighth notes that we have are dotted (even though there is no such thing as a dotted eighth note) because when you dot a not it means you hold onto the note longer and since we will be holding on to him forever we got those in memory of him. I am telling you this because it gave me a sense of comfort seeing that on my sign.

We drove the 2-3 hours to Koshu(I napped a lot of the trip) and they brought me to my apartment, (which I found out was different than where I thought I was going to be.) We dropped off my luggage and then they took us and dropped James and I off at his apartment so that I could use the internet to get ahold of some of my family to let them know I had arrived safely.  When I was done James walked me back to my apartment which was about a 5-10 minute walk. I put a few things away and crashed, it was already close to midnight by then. I woke up off and on from being in a new place, but then around 3am I woke up and thought my bed was shaking. I thought in my head did I just feel my first earthquake? No, it couldn’t have been. I decided I wasn’t even going to ask anyone the next day because I did not want them to think I was a crazy paranoid American thinking that any little thing was an earthquake. However, it came up the next day and sure enough I had felt my first earthquake. It only lasted about 10-20 seconds and it kind of felt like my bed just rumbled a bit. Anyways, that was my first night/flight.

Dinner with the Coulter's

Once again my postings are behind however I am trying to catch up a bit. Last weekend I was given the opportunity to have dinner and hang out wit the Coulter's. They all lived in Japan roughly eight years ago I believe. One of there sons is working at the camp that I have worked at for the past several summers this year and it is just incredible how God works those things out. I went over to there house and was treated to some yellow curry, which is not a dish with it's origin being of Japan, however they said the Japanese really enjoy it over there. It was very tasty then our main dish was yakisoba which yaki means meat and soba means noodles. There was also some cabbage in it I believe. It was also delicious. I practiced using my chopstick skills and they told me that I wasn't doing too bad, which I was very pleased to hear. They put "bulldog" sauce in with the yakisoba as well which is very tasty. Towards the end they got out the pickled ginger and were having it over rice. They told me I needed to at least try it, so being a respectful guest I did. Oh my goodness I thought I swallowed some sort of cleaner and apparently it was written all over my face. We had a good laugh over it and me describing it as a different flavored/scented pine sol. I don't think I will be having much of that in Japan. They showed me lots of fun pictures and we chatted for awhile. They gave me some great advice and told me just to have an open mind and try and soak up everything I can.